The detention of a Central Police University professor yesterday on suspicion of having gathered intelligence for China has sparked much debate, with sources saying that since the signing of a cross-strait agreement on joint efforts to combat crime, China has repeatedly asked Taiwan to establish “anti-terrorism” cooperation targeting pro-Taiwanese independence groups, pro-Xinjiang independence groups, pro-Tibetan independence groups, Falun Gong practitioners and social activists.
Taiwan has so far declined to agree to cooperate because the people China lists as “terrorists” are mostly political dissidents, sources said.
Wu Chang-yu (吳彰裕), an associate professor with the Central Police University’s Department of Administrative Management, teaches Chinese political history at the university.
Photo: Taipei Times
The court granted prosecutors’ request to detain him after interrogation.
Taipei prosecutors also applied to detain Lin Po-hung (林柏宏), a police officer with the -National Police Bureau’s (NPB) Foreign Affairs Department, but the district court released Lin without bail. Prosecutors released another NPB officer, Wu Tung-lin (吳東霖), on NT$100,000 bail.
Prosecutors allege Wu Chang-yu collected information on Chinese dissidents, pro-Tibetan independence activists and the Falun Gong movement in Taiwan, and delivered that information to Chinese authorities.
Photo: Taipei Times
Prosecutors said Wu Chang-yu told investigators the information he offered was not confidential, but common information.
Wu Chang-yu also denied he received money from China, but prosecutors said they have evidence Wu Chang-yu had received at least several free flights to Chinese cities from Chinese authorities.
Wu Chang-yu’s colleagues at the university declined to comment after his arrest, but some have privately said that Wu was troublesome.
Wu Chang-yu receives broad media coverage as a fortune-teller, and the school’s Administrative Management Department has asked him to refrain from mentioning that he teaches at the school while appearing in the media, sources said.
As to whether Wu was helping Beijing gather intelligence, an academic that frequently -travels to China said that China’s intelligence gathering on Taiwan was very thorough, with complete records of who has a special background or is connected to political figures and parties in Taiwanese academia.
This has been made easier for China since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) came to power because cross-strait exchanges have become more frequent, the academic said, adding that the information given to Beijing was both more up-to-date and more accurate.
According to sources, a law professor from National Chengchi University (NCCU) had gone to China on an academic -exchange this summer, but had been questioned by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) without cause and forcibly detained for two to three days.
Academics who are aware of such proceedings said it was not the first time that had happened, and there have been incidents of Taiwanese academics being harassed by the MSS before.
However, the academic added that it was harder to understand why it was still happening, because since Ma came into power, he has claimed that cross-strait relations have improved greatly.
Additional reporting by AFP
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
TECH EFFECT: While Chiayi County was the oldest region in the nation, Hsinchu county and city, home of the nation’s chip industry, were the youngest, the report showed Seven of the nation’s administrative regions, encompassing 57.2 percent of Taiwan’s townships and villages, became “super-aged societies” in June, the Ministry of the Interior said in its latest report. A region is considered super-aged if 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. The ministry report showed that Taiwan had 4,391,744 people aged 65 or older as of June, representing 18.76 percent of the total population and an increase of 1,024,425 people compared with August 2018. In June, the nation’s elderly dependency ratio was 27.3 senior citizens per 100 working-aged people, an increase of 7.39 people over August 2018, it said. That
‘UNITED FRONT’: The married couple allegedly produced talk show videos for platforms such as Facebook and YouTube to influence Taiwan’s politics A husband and wife affiliated with the China Unification Promotion Party (CUPP) were indicted yesterday for allegedly receiving NT$74 million (US$2.32 million) from China to make radio and digital media propaganda to promote the Chinese government’s political agenda and influence the outcome of Taiwan’s elections. Chang Meng-chung (張孟崇) and his wife, Hung Wen-ting (洪文婷), allegedly received a total of NT$74 million from China between 2021 and last year to promote candidates favored by Beijing, contravening the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and election laws, the Chiayi District Prosecutors’ Office said. The couple acted as Beijing’s propaganda mouthpiece by disparaging Hong Kong democracy activists
EARLY ARRIVALS: The first sets of HIMARS purchased from the US arrived ahead of their scheduled delivery, with troops already training on the platforms, a source said The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said it spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the south of Taiwan proper on the way to exercises in the Pacific, a second consecutive day it has reported such activities. The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the missions, reported just days before tomorrow’s US presidential election. The US is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Its arms sales to Taipei include a US$2 billion missile system announced last month. The MND said that from 9am yesterday,
RSS